Getting your audience to their destination

Your target audience are passengers trying to get somewhere.

Maybe they want to:

• Achieve a goal
• Make a change in their life
• Improve an aspect of their work
• Become a better version of themselves

As a creator, your job is to provide transportation to get them to that destination.

Your content is like public transit: it’s cheap and headed in the right direction – but it’s slow. You make a lot of stops and ensure you’re picking up everyone along the way.

Your paid products offer faster, more direct, and even private forms of transportation:

• A self-paced course is like an autonomous car
• A community membership is like flying economy
• A group coaching program is like flying first-class
• 1:1 coaching is like taking a private plane

These are just examples, and they are non-exhaustive. The point is that you have to decide what type of transportation business you want to run. And the transportation business you run impacts the type of travelers you attract.

Choosing Your Transportation Model

If I were starting today, I’d start on the higher end. It’s just a numbers game – when you sell a cheaper product, you need more scale for a big financial outcome. If you don’t have an audience scale, that’s a difficult strategy.

Plus, there’s a brand implication. As my friend Jay Acunzo has said, it’s easier for brands to go downmarket over time than upmarket. Tesla started with more expensive forms of electric vehicles to fund their ability to create cheaper cars.

Ask yourself: would you rather purchase an economical product made by a luxury brand or a luxury product made by an economical brand? I don’t know about you, but I’d be more excited to buy a cheaper Rolex than a luxury product from Temu.

If you’re aligned with this thinking, ask yourself how to design a private jet experience. Can you provide a private, high-touch solution that doesn’t just feel easy but enjoyable?

Luxurious even?

Embracing a High-Ticket Offer

I know this takes some courage. It may even feel counter-intuitive to start with a high-ticket offer. Getting someone to pay even $100 for something is hard, right?

That’s true. But it’s not 10 times harder than creating an offer worth $1,000 to someone else. You’d need to sell 10 products at $100 for the same outcome.

Of course, you don’t need to go all the way to the private jet. Personally, I’ve chosen not to have a done-for-you, white-glove offer. That type of high-touch service model is incredibly valuable, and I know people would pay for it – but it’s not aligned with the type of business I want to build.

Instead, I’ve taken more of a passenger plane approach with ​The Lab​: it’s a shared experience, but there are different “cabins” (​tiers​) with different levels of amenities.

Memberships like The Lab could take a lot of forms – I could’ve created a lower-ticket, content-only membership, but I wanted to provide a higher degree of service for a more advanced customer first. This has given me the cash flow to re-invest in the growth of the business.

If you obsess about the outcome AND the experience, you can find an audience for that offer. It'll take time and courage. But as your audience grows and YOU have the stability to stay in business, sales from your “luxury” product can subsidize the later development of more accessible forms of transportation.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the key is choosing the right transportation mode for you and your audience. I recommend starting with a higher-value, high-touch offer that resonates deeply with those ready for a premium experience and then leveraging its success to expand your reach over time.

By thoughtfully aligning your content and products with your audience's journey, you ensure that every decision—from the humble public transit of your content to the high-end experience of your paid products—moves them closer to their goals.